New Gloucester Maine4Kids! Public PreK Forum
The purpose of the October 5th Maine 4 Kids! Forum was to generate a particular ‘quality of thought’ surrounding the topic of PreK that only collaboration between community members can evoke. There were a total of 109 participants at the forum spanning 9 counties and ranging from superintendents to child care owners and staff to librarians.
All were gathered together to identify and discuss the needs of Maine’s 4 year olds. Within smaller and then larger groups arranged by county, participants at the forum began the process of creating a multi-systemic collaborative effort to begin or improve on the quality and availability of PreK in Maine.
Community members from six counties (Androscoggin, Cumberland, Franklin, Kennebec, Sagadahoc, and York) were able to:
(1) identify the needs of Maine’s 4 year old children and communities,
(2) generate a concrete vision of future PreK initiatives at the Forum event, and
(3) identify what information their community needs from the Department of Education in order to propel their vision into reality.
Results Summary of New Gloucester PreK Forum
